Go to Go Cong to eat mudskipper

The mudskipper looks very ugly on the outside, but for the people of Go Cong, this is a clean food source from nature and also a specialty dish for visitors from afar when coming to Go Cong.

The mudskipper is a fish that is no longer strange to the coastal people of Go Cong. This is an amphibian that can crawl quickly on the ground, climb trees and move on the water surface at a speed of about 30km/h. They live in many brackish and muddy areas along the coast. This fish looks similar to the star goby but has rough skin and two large bulging eyes on top of its head. Because of this identifying feature, people call them "mudskipper goby".

Mudskippers are quite aggressive, with a mouth full of fangs, the upper jaw teeth arranged in two rows, the lower jaw in one row, large eyes and especially two fins like two arms that help them crawl easily on the mud. Mudskippers have a cylindrical head, two bulging eyes on top so their range of vision is very wide. They breathe with lungs and can breathe on land but when underwater they use gills and often come out of their caves when the sun comes up. Anyone who has ever heard of this deformed fish, when witnessing them walking, running, and even climbing trees, must be amazed. Based on such movement characteristics, Westerners call them "walking fish" and the World Organization for Biological Resources considers them one of the six "strangest animals on the planet".

This fish is quite omnivorous, they eat mostly smaller species such as shrimp, crabs, crabs and small fish. Mudskippers are very agile and cunning, they hunt for food on the water surface and live in deep burrows, 2 - 3 m long. They dig burrows with their mouths with many connecting nooks and crannies in dangerous places such as stuck in the roots of mangrove trees, mangrove trees, sycamore trees, and can dive underwater for 5 - 10 minutes.

In folklore, there are three ways to catch mudskippers: People catch mudskippers by waiting for the tide to go down, the mudskippers enter the cave, people seal all the side doors of the cave and then place a small net in front of the main cave entrance, when the tide comes up, the fish come out of the cave and get caught in the net. At that time, people just need to remove the net to catch fish at the cave entrances where the net has been marked. In addition, with the many years of experience of the coastal people in Go Cong area, they use bamboo poles or smooth mangrove branches, about 2 - 3 m long, to catch the worms, remove all the intestines, use coconut leaves to thread into a circle, tie it to the fishing line. Prepare a large basin, sprinkled with ash or dry bran. When the water is low, the mud flat is exposed, the mudskippers run and jump everywhere. Lure the fish to bite the bait, gently jerk it up and skillfully make the fish fall into the bran basin (or ash prepared). Besides, people can also go fishing for mudskippers at night, because when the light is so bright, they cannot move and can be easily caught.

Mudskippers are considered one of the special products of the Go Cong region, because thanks to their constant movement, the fish meat is very firm, fragrant and sweet. However, you must know how to process it to bring out the true deliciousness of this fish. Mudskippers do not have fat but the fish is very slimy and has a slightly fishy taste, so when processing it, you need to do it carefully to remove the slime. When finished processing and let it cool, the fish meat is not fishy, this is a quite outstanding strength of this fish. There are many dishes made from mudskippers such as: braised with pepper, fried, cooked in sour soup, but the most delicious is still grilled mudskippers with salt and chili. To prepare a delicious grilled mudskipper dish with salt and chili, you must first wash the mud off the mudskippers, then marinate them with salt and chili, then grill them on a charcoal stove. After grilling on the stove for a while, the aroma of the fish spreads, blending with the spicy smell of chili, making diners exclaim because of the rich flavor of this dish. Besides, mudskippers can also be dried. Fried or grilled mudskippers with tamarind fish sauce are wonderful.